


But I Believe In Divinity

by AsagiStilinski



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Duel Monsters (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Ballet, Alternate Universe - Dance, Alternate Universe - Vampire, Ballet, Blood, Blood Drinking, Fluff, Implied Sexual Content, Injury, M/M, Meet-Cute, Vampire Bites, Vampires
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-31
Updated: 2019-03-31
Packaged: 2019-12-30 03:20:20
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18307133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AsagiStilinski/pseuds/AsagiStilinski
Summary: Atem has been a dancer for nearly his entire life, and the older he gets, the more the realization that he'll have to retire begins to gnaw at him, he fears that, without ballet, he won't be able to be happyThen he falls off of a balance bar and everything changes





	But I Believe In Divinity

**Author's Note:**

> Another one for Sunday's "Bite" prompt, this was supposed to be .... way less fluffy then it ended up being honestly xD
> 
> I blame heavy inspiration from Marina's "Happy"

His body was still

It was as still as a corpse

For a moment, he didn't even breathe

_Exhale_

Shift

_Releve_

_Spin_

End on third position...

He was breathing too heavily now, and there was a small tremor in his hands

He released the tension in his body, falling back against the support bar behind him and hung his head, panting quietly and clenching his jaw

Ballerinas had such a short life expectancy in their careers, they were only good for a handfull of years

It was sickening irony, to be a ballerina you have to train nearly your entire childhood, yet your career won't even last past thirty-five or so, if you even make it that long

It was a depressing thought, it made his eyes sting, and in a quick shift, he jumped up to sit on the bar, leaning his back against the mirror and bracing one foot against the bar so he could balance, head bowing into his hands, nails curling into the skin of his forehead

He was twenty-five....

He would get another ten years out of it if he was lucky, but he still felt like the end was nearing somehow

Every birthday was like a clock ticking down to the end of his career and he hated it

Sure he had known from the time he started dancing that he couldn't be a ballerina forever, hell he didn't even _want_ to be, he wanted to get married and have kids someday- not to mention having a _pet_

As a ballerina, those things weren't possible, and he wasn't willing to give them up, even for dance

.. Yet... he couldn't imagine just _giving up_ his career either

This was far from the first time he had faced this miserable reflection, but it never got any easier- in fact, as he grew older, and got closer and closer to that inevitability, it became harder and harder to stomach

His mind was going through turbulence, he felt ... mixed up and full of uneasy emotions

He needed to go home, he knew

He needed to go home and sleep, he had been here too long anyway

Rubbing his head tiredly, he shifted again, standing on the bar and turning to face the mirror so he could climb down

Unfortunately, however, as he prepared to step down, a terrible cramp went through his leg, pulling a yelp of pain from his throat as he reached out down on instinct, and immediately lost his balance, falling to the ground and hitting his head on the hardwood floor

The last thing he remembered was falling

 

~+~

 

Seto loved winter

The darkness, the chill in the air, the entire atmosphere was like a vampire's paradise, and he always loved to linger in it, just for a little wile, knowing that spring would be arriving before he knew it

It was for this reason that he was walking instead of driving, he enjoyed the little bit of cold and the freshness of the night air

And it was because he was walking and not driving that he was able to catch the familiar scent of blood coming from a few blocks down, sweet blood at that...

And judging by the volume of it, it didn't seem like it was from only a pappercut...

Narrowing his eyes with concern, he made his way quickly towards the source of the smell, finding himself standing, in mild surprise, in front of a dance studio

Reaching out, he slowly placed his hand on the door and gave it small push, noting that the doors were apparently unlocked

Strange....

It was well past midnight, the studio's hours were posted on the door as 8 A.M. to 6 P.M....

Deciding not to linger any longer, he slid inside, following the enticing scent of sweetened blood and making his way past the lobby and into the actual studio, wincing a little at the bright lights stinging his eyes as he stepped into the heavily mirrored room

It didn't exactly take long for him to find the bloodied victim laying on the floor

A ballerina huh?

Well, Seto surely couldn't just let the arts suffer just because one of it's dancers took some sort of spill

Leaning down, he gently picked up the dancer and propped him up against the nearest mirrored wall, looking him over for a short moment in contemplation

He was beautifull, without a doubt

Relatively short, with soft tanned skin, and wild, three-toned hair- blonde, black, and red...

But he was beautifull, and it would be a shame for him to die like this

Carefully, Seto lifted his wrist to his mouth, biting down into his flesh and drawing a heavy stream of blood, gently pressing his wrist to the human's mouth and forcing his mouth open with his other hand

After a few short seconds, the dancer tensed up and twitched, wrinkling his nose and trying to get away from the warm gush of blood being forced into his mouth

"Hush, be still," Seto demanded quietly, waiting for a few moments longer, making sure that the human had swallowed a substantial amount of blood before finally pulling his wrist away and standing up, waiting for a breif moment for the wound to close up before turning on his heel and hesitating, he wondered if he should try to find out who this guy was....

No, he decided, that was unnecessary

He was just doing a good deed here, there was no sense in trying to keep in touch with the guy, no matter how delicious his blood smelled

Unfortunately for Seto however, the ballerina had opened his eyes just long enough, just slightly enough, to see the vampire's silhouette

A tall, dark figure, with a long coat....

That was all he could manage, however, before unconsciousness claimed him again

 

~+~

 

"Well, you're clear, I don't see so much as a bruise,"

Atem's mouth fell open slightly, his eyebrows pinched, not really sure how to reply to that

"But- ... I... Yugi, I cracked my head open! You... you saw the blood, it looks like a crime scene in there!!"

"I know, but I don't know what to tell you sweetie.... there's not so much as a scratch, and I've looked _everywhere_ , are you sure it was your _head_ that you hit and not something else?"

"Why would I have passed out if I'd landed on something else?"

"Shock?" the doctor reasoned gently, though judging by Atem's face he was willing to say that probably wasn't the case

"I don't know what to say... does your head hurt at all?"

"No, nothing hurts, not even my feet.... I've never felt this good in my life,"

"How is that possible when you've been overworking yourself for hours...?"

Atem knew his freind was really asking that rhetorically, but he gave a confused shrug anyway

"Well, you're still going to the hospital for some scans, and I'm calling Ishizu in the morning to call you out for tommorrow's show,"

"What!? Yugi you can't do that!"

Uh-oh

Atem knew the moment it came out of his mouth that he had made an enormous mistake

Yugi Muto was one of the best doctors in Japan, there was a reason that the dance company had hired him for one of their private physicians after all

He was also sweet, kind, gentle, soft-spoken, with a great bedside manner and a loving disposition

He was warm and wonderfull and Atem's best freind from their teen years

....

But he also turned into a terrifying force of nature when his care instructions were questioned

There was a consequence to the doctor caring so deeply for his dancers and the impending sense of doom that had fallen over the ballerina's entire body was definitely it

"Atem Amyr don't you _dare_ try to question me! After not only working yourself to the bone, getting _zero_ sleep- as I'm sure the hospital will keep you tied up in tests until morning- and losing _buckets_ of blood- _wherever_ it came from- I am NOT letting you perform! It's a hazard!! To you, to Joey, to the entire troop, to the audience-!"

"Alright alright I'll let you call me out... just please- ... please stop shouting..."

Yugi exhaled slowly, his warm, gentle demeanor returning as he reached out to gently start sifting through Atem's hair again, noting the dried blood and feeling another spark of frustration at not being able to find the actual wound

"Is your head hurting honey?"

"No, I just don't like seeing you upset," the dancer muttered back, eyes cast down to the floor

"Well, the blood's cleaned up,"

Both men turned their attention away from the situation at hand and over to the blonde who was currently heading back into the lobby from the studio, wiping his hands on a cloth and tossing the now bloodied rag into a large plastic bag full of similarly damaged cloths and towels

"I ain't sayin' it'd pass a luminol test but atleast it don't look like a cut scene from JAWS,"

"Thank you Joey... I'm sorry for disturbing you at this late hour," Atem said quietly, his eyes downcast again

"Hey, don't apologize, I was gonna wake up when ya' called Yug no matter what," the other dancer smiled, tossing the bag aside and coming closer to crouch down at Atem's side, placing a hand on his leg

"I know but-"

"Quit apologizin', I mean it, you're my partner 'Tem, an' my best freind, 'side from Yug o'course, ya' know I ain't gonna just sit home an' wait to hear if you're alright or not," he said softly, turning to look at Yugi now

" _Is_ he alright?"

"I think so.... but he's still going to have to go to the hospital for a few scans, I'm calling him out of tommorrow's show too just in case,"

"Good idea, go on an' do that for me too will ya'? I ain't leavin' his side 'till he's cleared up an' I got a feelin' that ain't gonna be quick work,"

"You're certainly right about that," Yugi chuckled softly, leaning over to give his boyfreind a soft kiss on the cheek before they both rose to their feet, each extending a hand towards Atem to help him to his feet

The dancer smiled shyly, taking them both and rising to his feet as well

"I may not know what happened to you, but I can say with certainty that for you to be this coherent after losing so much blood, someone must be watching over you," Yugi noted off-handedly

"Like... a guardian angel?"

"Probably yes, something like that,"

He wondered breifly if he had just imagined that silhouette from before, if the tall man in the long coat had just been a hallucination, or if ... perhaps....

Shaking his head, he decided not to fuss over it

It was probably just a dream, and nothing more

 

~+~

 

To the surprise of probably no one, Seto was unable to keep himself away from the dancer

Three days after initially saving the human, he found himself being ushered to his seat at the ballet

He wasn't sure what he had expected, in all honesty, but he was still rather surprised to see the human he had saved only days ago playing the role of Dracula

There had to be some heavy irony in this

The dancer was just as beautifull in motion as Seto had imagined he would be- more so, probably

The entire show, he couldn't take his eyes off of the beautifull stranger, and when he was off stage, Seto felt oddly... displeased

True, he had come to the ballet to see the human he had rescued, but he was a fan of the arts in general, he should have been able to enjoy the ballet regardless of one dancer's presence

And yet....

It was an extremely odd realization to come to, that he had become so enchanted with someone he had never actually met, especially considering that, for Seto, being enchanted by people in general was an exceedingly rare event

But there was just something about this ballerina that he hungered for, in a way unique to the way vampires typically hungered for humans, and he was now becoming more determined than ever to find out what it was that drew him to the stranger

No matter what he would have to do to accomplish that

 

~+~

 

Two days without dancing had been aggravating

It wasn't as though Atem never took breaks- he took two days of rest every week, as mandated by the company

But with these two on top of it, he was now resting for a total of four days this week, and he wasn't particularly pleased with it

So when he finally got to performing again, three days after his fall, he had been even more enthusiastic than usual

In general, Dracula was his favorite ballet, so he was always excited to perform, but now getting to do so after an extra two-day break....

He had nearly _sprinted_ onto the stage

His good mood lasted throughout the night too

The audience had been extremely enthusiastic, and everyone seemed to be in high spirits, he had had plans to have a late dinner with Joey and Yugi, but after seeing how cozy the two of them were getting after the show, he had decided to offer a rain-check so they could go home and have some time alone together

Ofcourse that freed up his evening...

He decided to stop by the bookstore and pick up some new reading material

He hadn't been in a couple of weeks and he was in such a good mood now that tonight seemed like the ideal time for it

Half-way through the manga section, however, he ran into the typical problem he faced with bookstores: High shelves

Mildly annoyed by his short stature, he shifted up into a pointe and reached up for the new volume of The Ancient Magus Bride, his fingers skimming the spine... but not quite managing to grab it

Grumbling to himself, he gripped the shelf with his free hand, arching his back a little bit more, desperately trying to reach the top of the book, but to no avail

"Dammit...!"

Suddenly, out of nowhere, someone else's hand slid up to the book and took it, drawing Atem's attention towards him and offering the ballerina the book

"That's some pose you've got," he noted with a small smirk

The stranger was... _gorgeous_ , with pale skin, brown hair, and the bluest eyes Atem had ever seen....

His breath was practically caught in his throat just from looking at him

"Thank- ... thank you..." he said softly, his skin starting to flush darker with a blush as he carefully accepted the book

"Mm, are you a dancer or ... a skater or something?"

"Actually I am, I'm a prima ballerina, well... technically, as I'm male, I'm a _premier danseur_ , but prima ballerina just sounds better, don't you think?"

"It has a certain ring to it, and it's much more recognizable," the stranger agreed with a quick nod

"So what's the difference between a prima ballerina and a regular ballerina?"

"'Prima' is the rank, it's the second highest rank you can get, but it's the highest my company has at the moment, _prima ballerina assoluta_ is the highest rank, but that's an extremely rare honor,"

"Huh, so you're one of the best at what you do,"

"I wouldn't go that far," Atem laughed, grinning from ear to ear

He didn't know who this stranger was, but he already liked him

So with that in mind, he turned a little more, holding his hand out towards the stranger politely

"My name is Atem,"

"Seto Kaiba," the stranger- _Seto Kaiba_ \- replied, giving his hand a firm but gentle shake, glancing down into Atem's shopping basket for a moment, lips twitching up into a smirk

"You like scary stories huh?"

Atem himself glanced down into his basket, feeling his lips twitch up into a smirk and nod confirmation to the other man's question

"I do, I love the supernatural and mysteries and horror... all of that stuff,"

Before sitting up the manga section, he had spent probably an hour scanning the discount shelves for good non-fiction supernatural reads

Ghost stories, unexplained mysteries, sightings of cryptids...

He loved it all

"You do hm?" Seto smirked a little bit more

"Listen, I don't know if ballerinas can have calories, but ... if you can, do you like ice cream?"

Atem's eyes lit up, grinning from ear to ear

"I can have a treat every now and then... and I think, at this point, I'm overdue for one,"

 

~+~

 

"You fell off a balance bar and hit your head?" Seto asked slowly, his eyebrows raised

He may have known that Atem had hurt himself a few days ago, but he hadn't known exactly how it had happened

"Yeah, it was ... not my finest moment, but you must admit there's some sort of irony in the fact that my worst injury to date happened when I wasn't even dancing,"

"'Irony' is certainly a word for it," Seto noted with a snort

"Are you alright though?"

"I'm fine, in fact I'm... shockingly _great_ , the doctor said there isn't even a scratch, it's... it's very odd, but I'm relieved, if I hadn't turned out to be alright I would have had to quit dancing, and I- .. I just can't imagine that, ofcourse I'll have to someday, ballerinas have very short careers, we're only good through our early thirties, and that's provided we don't injure ourselves before then,"

"I'm sorry to hear that," Seto said with a frown

"Do you have plans for after you retire?"

"I'd like to have a family, I want to have children, I know that I can't do that as long as I'm dancing, and truthfully... sometimes I think that I don't even want to wait until I'm in my mid-thirties to start my family, yet the thought of giving up performing is ... I just can't even think about it, I know most people go into teaching after their careers are over but ... I still want to keep performing, even if it isn't with a company, it's a complicated position to be in,"

"I know the feeling, surprisingly," Seto noted

"You do? In what way?" Atem asked in surprise

"I own my company, I'm the CEO, that takes an extreme amount of time to run, and I love it, I really do, but I also know that someday I'm going to have to cut back on it in order to have kids, I want to have my family... but everytime I start thinking of cutting back on my work... it's not a pleasant thought,"

"We're two peas in a pod then, aren't we?" Atem teased playfully, taking a bite of his ice cream

"We are, it's curious that we have such a similar dilemma, how do ballerinas usually deal with this? Is it a common problem for dancers?"

"Mm... I'm not sure if I would say it's common, but it's ... it happens, in fact my best freind is currently going through it, he's a dancer as well, in fact he's the Jonathan to my Dracula, we've known eachother for years and he's always been quite confident that he's going to dance until he can't anymore, like I have been, but ... he and our mutual freind recently began dating, they've fallen in love with eachother very quickly, or... perhaps better stated, they've loved eachother for a very long time, and now that they've added a physical side to things, they're coming to the realization of just how _much_ they love eachother, he's starting to question leaving the company sooner so that they can have more time together and they can begin a family of their own, it's a ... very big crisis for him, especially as, like me, he has no idea what he wants to do next, neither of us are really the teaching _type_... yet we can't imagine doing anything else, or going a single day without dancing,"

"Sounds like a complicated issue..."

More so than the issue he had with Kaiba Corp, cutting down was alot different than flat out quitting, after all

"It is, but he said that it's not as bad as he expected it to be, right now it's more questions than motivation, wanting to have plans in place before taking such a leap... he said that once you fall in love with someone, the timing of all of these things falls into place, it gets a little easier, I've always heard that from other dancers, honestly,"

"Do you believe them?"

Atem's smile was soft, fond, and a little bit distant

"I do," he said softly

"I really do,"

Seto didn't know why- as he wasn't exactly a touchy-feely person- but he found himself reaching out and gently placing his hand over Atem's, their fingers curling together as they finished their ice cream in comfortable silence

When was the last time he had been comfortable in any form with anyone?

A long time ago, he reasoned, if ever

Perhaps there was more to this .... _attraction_ than just the scent of Atem's blood

 

~+~

 

Heavy breaths and fingers in hair, pale skin pressing against soft copper, lips on lips, on necks, on chests

A tangle of limbs, a gasp for more and a promise of salvation

It's everything

It's _everything_

And Atem can't believe that it's his

All his life, Atem had only ever felt truly alive when he was dancing

But now, suddenly, that had changed

This,- whatever _this_ was, a casual affair or the bloomings of a relationship or something that he would have only once in his life- this made him feel just as alive as he did when he danced

Maybe more

The way his heart hammered in his chest, the way his blood rushed beneath his skin, the burn in his lungs and in his ribs and in every last muscle as it stretched and pulled and arched to meet the movements of the man above him

It was like a dance in it's self, he supposed

Each partner had to move in accordance with the other, in dedicated- if unplanned- movements, had to pay close attention to their partner, had to give a peice of themselves to their partner, because if they didn't, then it would never work

It's just that... as things hit their crescendo, as that feeling of _alive_ ness reached a peak Atem had never experienced before, there was something _else_ that happened

He gulped air greedily down his throat, his body arched in euphoria, as something sharp suddenly sank into his neck

Body tensing, his fingers curled, nails scratching into Seto's scalp, into his shoulder, drawing a few drops of blood of their own, as he realized that the other man's teeth were now buried in his neck

He wasn't sure what it meant

He had always believed in the supernatural, that there was something _more_ to life in this world than just plants, animals, and humans, but now that he was possibly faced with really experiencing it first hand, he didn't know what to make of it

He could feel a slight rush, a little bit of an extra edge to the pleasure that was coursing through him, and he knew, somewhere, in the back of his mind, that his blood was being drained, but he couldn't bring himself to mind

He just closed his eyes, breathing deeply, and gave himself to the man above him

 

~+~

 

He hadn't intended to bite Atem, in the beginning

He really had only meant for things to be soft and intimate, not to turn this into a meal, and yet, when he caught Atem's scent in the throes of ecstasy, when he looked down at the way the veins in his throat throbbed, the way the blood rushed beneath his beautifully dark skin...

His fangs dropped before he had even realized it and he simply couldn't help himself

His blood was sweet and warm, it satisfied his thirst, it warmed him from the inside out, and he knew from the very beginning that he would never be able to give this up

His blood was addictive

Seto would crave it for the rest of his life, he wouldn't go a day where he didn't desire the taste of his lover with near _desperation_

He would crave Atem, every part of Atem, for the rest of eternity

Blood, body, and soul

He already wanted to spend eternity with him, he had been thinking of turning him ever since he heard the dancer's dismay at his sort career path, vampirism would prevent aging and thus prevent him from succumbing to the natural deadline his career had

And the taste of his blood....

He wouldn't be able to live off of Atem's blood if he was a vampire, but he could still enjoy the taste of it

He knew he was going too far though, he didn't know if this would be something Atem wanted, he didn't even know if Atem would be alright with the vampire thing or not, or if maybe he would hate him, if he would be disgusted with him, if the silence coming from the human was to be taken as disgust and regret...

He laid still after, panting quietly, wondering if he had just made an enormous mistake or not

"So," Atem said after a few, quiet moments

"Vampire huh?"

Seto's face turned a bit red, slowly glancing over at the ballerina and noting the bright, wide grin on his face, the way his eyes sparkled with amusement and excitement and curiosity

And suddenly he was sure that he had made the right choice

 

~+~

 

Atem found himself at a familiar crossroad

A month after the accident at the studio he was back in his normal routine- but with a little something extra now

Classes, rehearsals, performances.... and Seto

He found himself spending more and more time with the vampire, they were growing thick as theives, and Atem felt that he was really, truly, falling in love

Dance was still important to him, one of the most important things in his life, but now that he had Seto, there was _more_

And at the end of the night, faced with the possibility of going home or sneaking into the studio for a little extra practice, he found himself standing outside of the theater, with his home in one direction and the studio in the other

It was a no-brainer, it never was, but now-

"Atem?"

Turning, the dancer found his face softening, his expression warm and delighted as he caught the sight of his boyfreind a few feet away

"Are you ready to go?"

"Yes," the ballerina replied, a bright smile stretching over his face as his newly formed fangs glinted in the moonlight, starting to walk excitedly towards his lover

"Let's go home,"


End file.
